Northwest Vision and Media, create the bigger picture
Red Vision
Two thousand black cats stalk a city street. A tidal wave threatens to engulf everyone in its path. Then a warrior fights for his life. And I watch with growing horror as a single, mighty blow takes off his head.
Dave Mousley presses pause on the remote control. For now, the show
is suspended.
“That gives you a flavour of the kind of things we do here,” says Dave, the enigmatic Managing Director of Manchester-based Red Vision, one of the UK’s leading players in Cgi - computer generated imagery.
“Instead of employing a cast of thousands just to appear in the odd scene, production companies ask us supply computer generated characters,” explains Dave. “It means they can apply higher resources to the front end of their drama, and leave us to fill in the background.”
So suddenly having an army of thousands marching majestically across a battlefield, is feasible - even for low-budget features. But it’s got to look realistic.
“Absolutely!” says Chris Lunt, Red Vision’s Business Development Manager. “People want to watch TV and film that looks the business, and that’s exactly what we do. We can do big and epic, even on a micro budget.”
Red Vision’s animators write software, which in turn creates characters and scenes which have captivated audiences world-wide. Remember Granada’s Titanic: Birth of a Legend and the BBC’s Unstoppable Wave programme about the Boxing Day tsunami? Red Vision can claim credit for both.
Whether its graphics or visual effects, computer generated extension or removal, the Manchester operation offers it all.
With an impressive track record of introducing Cgi to re-create historical and natural events, Red Vision’s also had considerable success with drama documentaries. “When the BBC asked us to get involved with their Ancient Voices programme, Death on the Nile, we were probably the first to use virtual characters in drama documentary,” says Chris.
It was the first of many similar commissions, leading to a burgeoning reputation and a raft of industry awards. The company recently won an Outstanding Achievement in Craft Award at the National Royal Television Awards, coming on the back of two BAFTAs, and an impressive array of other accolades.
It is perhaps understandable that Red Vision was bought out by Inspired Gaming Group Plc in June 2006, in a reported £20 million deal. But it wasn’t just their film and TV work which attracted the attention of Inspired. It was computer generated gaming.
“If we didn’t have the virtual gaming arm to the business, we’d be faced with the same issues as many other UK based TV graphic companies, and wouldn’t have the resource to plough into the research and development that delivers the high production values and cost savings that are the hallmark of Red Visions Cgi and visual effects, “ says Dave.
“The virtual gaming division enables us to recruit and deploy a highly skilled team of developers who produce software tools and code that has application across both the TV and gaming areas of operation.
“The revenues generated in the betting and gaming industry by our virtual gaming products over the last five years, has now exceeded £4 billion, and that gets people’s attention. It’s also enabled us to plan strategically for the medium and long term.”
Go into any bookmakers’ and there’ll be CGI of
virtual horseracing taking place. And there’s a high
probability Red Vision created the software.
“When the Cheltenham races were cancelled in 2001 because of
foot-and-mouth disease, Channel 4 and Sky transmitted a virtual
race in its place – and they used Red Vision’s software
to do it,” says Chris proudly.
Since then, the company’s gaming arm has grown considerably,
taking in virtual greyhound racing, motor sport and football. The
genre will continue to develop. And so too will Red Vision’s
Cgi plans for film and television.
“We started out 10 years ago, and we’ve built our client base up through sheer hard work,” says Dave, who opened a London office five years ago, and a Bristol base in 2004. Within the next month, the company will expand even further – to Canada.
““We want to grow what is happening in the UK by using strategically placed facilities around the world, and the way the Canadian tax credit system works means we’ve been able to open an office in Toronto,” he explains.
“A lot of our operational work will be delivered from there, and we’ve already got around $Cdn 1 million worth of work lined up, but Manchester will still be the core hub of it all. We’ll develop the tool kits here, but a lot of the work will be undertaken in Canada, to qualify for tax credits for our clients co production requirements.
“We have now developed a sophisticated production intranet that allows the multi site operation of our Cgi production, and allows clients to fully integrate with our processes. We can deliver electronically straight into offline, and also provide clients with a 24/7 online shot comments and tracking facility to smooth the production process.
The move makes sound, financial sense. But it irks Dave that similar incentives aren’t available nearer to home.
“There aren’t enough animators here, partly because there’s no incentive for a gaming and computer graphics company to stay here,” he says. “We’ve got some of the greatest computer graphics talent in the world, but a lot of it moves abroad.”
Red Vision, however, has no plans to relocate. “There
aren’t any incentives to grow a computer graphics company
here, but we do it because we’re bloody minded!” he
tells me
.
Just as Red Vision made inroads in the gaming sector, so too will
they try to venture into other areas not previous explored.
“We’ve just completed some work for Oceans 13 for Warner, so we’ll continue to do bespoke work for film and TV. But we also have other collaborative projects of our own in development, including a film, television drama and an animated series. We’ve got some exciting plans, “confides Dave.
“Manchester and the Northwest have some hugely talented production companies, and we are always looking at ways of working with like minded people to extend what we do and to collaborate to grow.”
But whichever route Red Vision takes, Cgi will play a big part. As Mr Mousley turns his attention back to the flat screen, and flicks the remote, he’s confident of a computer generated future.
“The way I see it, what we do is an important part of the mix, and although you might say that using computer generated imagery is just another colour in the palette of the producer, it’s a really important factor in delivering high production values in many cases. Some stuff doesn’t have computer graphics in it – but an awful lot does - and I’m convinced that trend will continue.”
